Former President George W. Bush and former White House advisor Karl Rove helped raise more than $26 million for the Inova Schar Cancer Institute, setting a new record for a single-event non-profit fundraiser in the Washington, D.C., region.
The donations will help support a new highly personalized cancer research and treatment center on a 117-acre campus.
The fundraising dinner, held at the Inova Center for Personalized Health and chaired by NVR, Inc. president and chief executive officer Paul Saville and his wife Linda, drew more than 225 guests.
Former President Bush, who was interviewed by his former advisor at the event, has made the fight against cancer one of the priorities of his post-presidential activities.
The Inova Schar Cancer Institute got its start in 2015, when Dwight Schar, Chairman of the Board of NRV Inc., and his wife Martha, made a $50 million gift to Inova, the largest in the health system’s history. The institute will move into a new facility on the campus of the Inova Center for Personalized Health in Falls Church, Virginia, in April 2019.